[thereisnospork]

Its different from restaurants because housing is a local monopoly, or locally monopolizable. This is due to regulatory constriction of supply and lack of for-like alternatives.

You can't corner the food market by buying restaurants both because there are grocery stores and anyone willing to wade through a small amount of red tape can start a hot dog stand to undercut you. You can corner the housing market in a school district, or neighborhood because families can't live in tents or cars and the government forbids via zoning would-be opportunists from undercutting a monopolization attempt by e.g. turning their 1 unit dwelling into a 5 unit dwelling.